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What We Owe. 


From a 
Lawyer’s 
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Presbyterian Committee of Publication, Richmond, Va. 


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Warfield Library 
WHAT WE OWE. 


From a Lawyer’s Standpoint. 






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RICHMOND VA.: 
PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 


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CoPpyRIGHTED 
BY 
JAS. K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication, 
1900. 


PRINTED BY f 
WHITTET & SHEPPERSON, \ 


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RICHMOND, VA. 


WHAT WE OWE. 


In our business dealings we are at no loss to 
discover what we owe. We owe the fair mar- 
ket price to the butcher for his meat, or to the 
baker for his bread, and so for the other things 
we buy. But when we come to pay the Lord, 
there is no recognized rule. Every member of 
the church feels that he ought to bear his part 
of the expense, but this is a very uncertain 
standard. For there is,no way to ascertain 
what that part is, and besides, if some pay less 
than they ought, others are inclined to pay on 
the same scale, and so the fault of some be- 
comes the excuse of all for not doing their 
duty. Just what he ought to pay is often a 
very embarrassing question to the Christian 
earnestly striving to de his duty. His debts 
are pressing, and he doubts if it is just to his 
creditors to give anything to the church until 
he pays what he owes; or his family is large, 
or needs to be educated, or his girls must be 


4 Wuat WE Owe8. 


dressed so as to appear well, and he can give 
but little, for charity begins at home; or his 
income is so small that when house rent and 
the necessaries of life are paid for nothing is 
left, and it is only by the closest economy that 
he can keep the wolf from the door. Some, 
whose incomes are larger, do not wish to ap- 
pear lavish, or ostentatious; others, who pride 
themselves on owing no man anything, and on 
paying as they go, desire to pay promptly their 
part, neither more nor less, unwilling to have 
their neighbors pay anything for them, or to 
pay anything for their neighbors. Many zeal- 
ously hunt the smallest coin current, and feel 
the giving of anything more, while others in 
no better circumstances doubt if they have 
done their duty when they give five times as 
much. Not a few in all our churches give lit- 
tle or nothing, and often persons think they 
are liberal when their eifts are less than a 
hundredth part of thpir increase. That there 
ought to be a standard to guide all classes in 
this matter cannot be doubted. It would re- 
lieve Christians of the embarrassment so often 
felt and, if uniformly followed, would secure 
equality among the contributors, and give new 


WHat Wr Owe. 5 


life and vigor to the Master’s work in all its 
branches. 

The church brings to its people benefits as 
substantial as the teacher, the lawyer, or the 
physician. But no one of these would think 
of serving his neighbors upon an agreement 
that each of them would do his part towards 
paying him, each man’s part to be fixed by the 
man himself, and to be given after meeting his 
other necessities. It is a great wrong to the 
church to say that we give what we contribute 
to it.. We do not give the teacher, or the law- 
yer, or the physician, what we pay him for his 
services, and shall we say that the church 
stands lower than any of these, and make the 
Lamb’s Bride a perpetual mendicant! No 
man is a fair judge in his own case, and none 
of us would be willing to allow others to de- 
cide entirely for themselves what they owe us. 
No business man could live a year dealing with 
his customers on this-hasis. Covetousness is 
the besetting sin of fallen humanityy From 
covetousness Balaam was known as the troub- 
ler of Israel, Achan was stoned until he died, 
Saul lost the kingdom, and Gehazi became a 
leper. By covetousness Judas betrayed his 


6 Wuat WE Owe. 


Master, Ananias and Sapphira died at the 
apostles’ feet, and Demas, deserting them, went 
back to the world. Through covetousness came. 
the first great schism in the Christian church, 
by it the Roman See lost the scepter of the 
world, and with it all of us wage a constant 
contention. Daily thousands of men sell their 
souls for gain. It would, therefore, be strange, 
indeed, if he who knows so well the weakness 
of the human heart, and who taught us to 
pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” had 
placed us without some standard to guide us, 
in a position where we would be so apt-to be 
warped from the path of duty by the sugges- 
tions of affection, prejudice, or cupidity. 

Is there, then, in the Bible any standard by 
which all Christians may be guided? 

Under the Old Testament dispensation, the 
tithe was given to the Lord: 

“And all the tith? of the land, whether of 
the seed of the land,~or of the fruit of the 
tree, is the Lorp’s; it is holy unto the Lorp. 
And if a man will at all redeem aught of his 
tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part 
thereof. And concerning the tithe of the 
herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever pass- 


Wuat WE Owen. i 


eth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto 
the Lorp.”— (Ley. xxvii. 30-32.) 

There is in the New Testament no express 
absolution of this rule, and it is still in force, 
unless it ceased to be obligatory on Christians 
upon the fulfilment of the Levitical law. 
* Whether or not it passed away with the Leviti- 
cal law, we must decide by the same rules that 
we decide similar questions. If the tithe is 
in force, every Christian owes the Lord one- 
tenth of his increase or income, and when he 
pays this he simply pays his debt. To deter- 
mine whether or not the rule is in force under 
the Christian dispensation, a fair criterion 
will be to apply to the solution of the ques- 
tion those rules of law universally adopted in, 
the civil courts to determine whether a certain 
law has been repealed or is still in force. Our 
homes, our liberty, and our lives, are secured 
to us by the rules of law. They are the 
growth of centuries of the best human thought. 
and have long been found just and reasonable 
in application to every-day life. In deciding 
what we owe the Master we should at least not 
fall below those rules which the experience of 
ages has confirmed as wise, and which are of 


8 Wuat WE Owe. 


universal acceptance by the civil courts in de- 
termining what we owe our fellow-men. 

Among the accepted canons on this subject, 
which may be found in any law text-book, are 
the following: 

1. A temporary statute, expiring by tts own 
limitation, leaves the law as it found it. 

2. Repeal by implication is not favored, and 
is never allowed, unless the repugnance be- 
tween the new provision and the old is plain, 
and the two provisions are irreconcilable. 

3. The whole statute must be read together, 
and the real intention of the law-giver.must 
prevaul., 

Let us apply these rules to the tithe, and 
see whether or not, tested by this standard, it 
is in force. 

1. A temporary statute, expiring by its own 
limitation, leaves the law as it found it. 

Statutes are frequently passed, and provide 
that they shall be in etfect until a certain time, 
or the happening of a certain event. Thus 
we had a stay. law during the civil war for- 
bidding suits to be brought; and by another 
law land was allowed to be taken up by settlers 
before certain dates. After the time specified 


Wuat WE Owe. 9 


by these statutes had passed they were no lon- 
ger in force, and the pre-existing law was in 
force as though they had never been enacted. 

The Levitical law was to be in force till 
Shiloh came. He fulfilled the law, and after 
he came it was at an end, leaving the law of 
God to man as it found it. If the tithe, there- 
fore, was the law before Moses, the fact that 
it was incorporated in the Levitical law, and 
that this law has expired, would not abrogate 
the tithe, but the expiring of this law would 
leave it as obligatory as it was before the lat- 
ter was promulgated at Sinai. Thus the Ten 
Commandments, though incorporated in the 
canon of Moses, did not expire with it, but 
are still in force, being the law of God to his 
people always. 

Was the tithe instituted by the Levitical 
law, or was it at that tim established and well 
understood, and merely jicluded in it, like the 
Ten Commandments ? 

The Bible does not contain a statement of 
the law of God that was revealed to the patri- 
archs; we learn this only from allusions in 
the narrative, or from the form of the subse- 
quent revelation, or other circumstances. 


10 Wuat We Owe. 


Thus. we know that the Sabbath was com- 
manded, from God’s resting on that day, from 
the form of the Fourth commandment, “Re- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” and 
from the fact that man needed the Sabbath 
then no less than afterwards. In the same 
way we know the tithe was not new in the time 
of Moses. Of Cain and Abel we read: 

“And in process of time it came to pass, 
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground 
an offering unto the Lorp. And Abel, he also 
brought of the firstlings of his flock and of 
the fat thereof. And the Lorp had respect 
unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain 
and to his offering he had no respect.””—(Gen. 
iv. 3, 4.) 

Observe the difference. “And Abel brought 
of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat 
thereof ;” but “Cain brought of the fruit of 
the ground,”—not cf the first fruits, but of 
the fruits—such as remained, no doubt, after 
supplying the needs of his family. Cain be- 
lieved, perhaps, that charity began at home. 
In bringing of the firstlings of the flock to 
~ the Lord, Abel carried out the principle of the 
tithe, that God is not to be postponed till 


| 
: 





Wuat WE Owe. i 


other wants are satisfied, but is to be honored 
with the first of the increase——(Prov. lil. 9.) 

When Melchizedek, “the priest of the most 
high God,” met Abraham, “he gave him tithes 
of all” (Gen. xiv. 20); and when Abraham’s 
grandson, Jacob, was a fugitive from his home, 
God appeared to him at Bethel: 

“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God 
will be with me and will keep me in this way 
that I go, and will give me bread to eat and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my 
father’s house in peace; then shall the Lorp 
be my God; and this stone which I have set 
for a pillar shall be God’s house; and of all 
that thou shalt give me I will surely give the 


tenth unto thee.”—(Gen. xxviii. 20-22.) 


It is inconceivable that this penniless wan- 
derer, in the awful presence of God, should 
have thought to vow a tenth to the Lord un- 
less the tithe was familiar to him, and it must 
be that Jacob made this vow because in the 
home of his grandfather Abraham and _ his 
father Isaac the tithe was practiced; and as 
they habitually set apart a tenth of the in- 
crease to the Lord, when God appeared to him 


and covenanted to verify in his seed the prom- 


12 Wuat WE Owe. 


ises to Abraham and Isaac, and to make his | 
seed, not Esau’s, the chosen people, his mind | 
instinctively turned to this custom of theirs. | 
and he vowed to the Lord the same part of his | 
increase that they were accustomed to give. | 
And when Moses comes to speak of the tithe 
to Jacob’s descendants he does not speak of it 
as something new, but as something familiar 
and well understood. He says simply, “The 
tenth is holy unto the Lorp,” not shall be; and 
no reason is given. The whole context shows 
that it was a matter regarded as so familiar 
as to need no explanation. There is nothing 
in the narrative to indicate that the tithe was 
new in the time of Abraham and Jacob. As 
man’s moral nature has never changed, God’s 
moral law has always been the same. Man’s 
first duty has ever been to glorify his Creator 
-and the worship of God with his substance was 
at all times an essential part of this duty. It 
is also a special means of grace, and in the 
absence of evidence to the contrary, it cannot 
be presumed the patriarchs were without it. 
The common idea that the tithe was instituted 
for the benefit of the priesthood, and hence 
passed away with it, is a mistake. The tithe 





WHAT WE Owe. 13 


was required of all at Sinai, B. C. 1491 (Lev. 
xxvii.), and it was assigned to the Levites in 
lieu of a portion in the promised land twenty 
‘years later, B. C. 1471 (Num. xviii.) The 
priests were also required to tithe. 

“And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, 
Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto 
them, When ye take of the children of Israel 
the tithes which I have given you from them 
for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up a 
heave offering of it for the Lorp, even a tenth 
part of the tithe.”’— (Num. xviil. 25, 26.) 

In the East the family relation is carried to 
great length, and the customs of the ancestor 
who originated that family or tribe are care- 
fully preserved. If we knew only that Abra- 
ham and Jacob tithed, there would be a pre- 
sumption that the custom continued with their 
descendants, if the reason for it still existed ; 
and when in addition to this we find a law- 
giver enjoining its observance without expla- 
nation, and see it in use by all without objec- 
tion from any one, the presumption becomes so 
conclusive as to dispel all reasonable doubt. 
Consider what opposition would be raised now 
if a law was made requiring all to tithe. These 


14 Wuat WE Owe. 


Jews were a stiff-necked people, ready always 
to rebel against Moses, and it is past belief 
that there would have been no complaint of 
the tithe if it had been then new to them. Be- 
sides, among ancient nations we find in the 
very infancy of the race a tenth set apart to 
sacred uses. In his report on the tithe to 
Charleston Presbytery, in 1889, Rev. G. A. 
Blackburn quotes, among many other authori- 
ties on this point, the following: 

“Almost all nations of the earth have agreed 
in giving a tenth part of their property to be 
employed in religious uses.”—(Clarke. ) 

“The most barbarous nations, the heathen, 
Greeks and Romans, out of a principle of re- 
ligion common to all men, often dedicated 
their tithes to their gods. Some made it a 
standing obligation, others practiced it on par- 
ticular occasions, or by the impulse of a tran- 
sient devotion. The Arabian merchants, who — 
traded in spices, durst not sell any till they had 
paid the tithe to their god, Sabis. (Plin. lib. 
12 cap. 14.) The Persians were very exact in 
offering to their gods the tithe of the spoils 
they had taken from their enemies. (Xenoph. — 
Cyroped. lib. 4, 5, 7.) The Scythians them- 


Wuat WE Owe. 15 


selves sent their tithes to Apollo. (Solin. cap. 
27.) The Carthaginians were used to send to 
Tyre, of which they were a colony, the tithe of 
their profits (Mela. lib. 2, cap. 5), and they 
sent to Hercules Tyrius the tenth of the spoils 
_ they took in Sicily. (Diodor. lib. 20, Justin 
lib. 18.) The ship that brought the usual 
tithe of the Carthaginians to Tyre happened 
to arrive there a little before Alexander began 
the siege of that city. (Q. Curt. lib. 4, cap. 
2.) When Pisistratus wrote to Solon to per- 
suade him to return to Athens, he told him 
that every one there paid the tithe of his goods 
for the offering of sacrifices to the gods. 
(Laert. lib. 1.) The Pelasgians that were set- 
tled in Italy received a command from the 
oracle to send their tithes to Apollo of Del- 
phos. (Dyonys. Halicar.) Plutarch, in more 
places than one, mentions a custom of the 
Romans of offering to Hercules the tithe of 
what they took from their enemies.”—(Cal- 
met’s Dictionary.) 

“We have seen express testimony of the 
Romans paying tithes of their whole estate; 
of the Lydians giving tithes of all; of the 
Carthaginians sending tithes of all their pro- 


16 WHAT WE Owe. 


fits to Tyre. We have had particular instances 
of the tithe, of tithes of fruits, which Rec- 
caranus taught the men of Italy to offer to the 
gods; of tithes of corn dedicated to Apollo at 
Delos, the Palasgians’ tithe of all that should 
increase, as also tithe of mines paid yearly, 
and tithes of merchandise, both among Greeks 
and Romans; tithes of frankincense and cin- 
namon, among the Arabians and Ethiopians, 
which sufficiently prove tithes were paid of all 
ordinary profits. . . . And doubtless it was 
a very ancient and known custom in those 
parts of the world, because, when Cyrus had © 
conquered Croesus and was about to spoil Sar- 
dis, Croesus, desirous to save the goods of the 
citizens, admonished Cyrus that if he would 
publish among his soldiers, and put them in 
mind that the tithe of the city must necessarily 
be given to Jupiter, they would not dare to 
touch anything, no, not in the heat of victory ; 
and Croesus hoped, being thus put off at pres- 
ent, the citizens might give liberal gifts to the 
soldiers in cool blood. . . . And surely, 
tithing must be very ancient in Greece, since 
Mars himself is recorded to have dedicated 
his tithe to one of the Genii that first taught 
him to be a soldier.”— (Comber. ) 


Wuat We Owe. 3 


In the light of the facts it cannot be con- 
cluded that the tithe originated with the 
Jews. It was a venerable custom among the 
Greeks B. C., 1500, and among the Romans 
B. C., 1200. Traces of it as something old 


_ and well understood appear in the earliest his- 


toric times among nations having little or no 
intercourse with the Jews or each other. To 
suppose that so many people accidentally all 
hit on the tenth, is out of the question, and 
the only reasonable conclusion is that they all 
got it like the altar, and sacrifices for sin, 
from a common source; that it was a part of 
God’s moral law originally revealed to man, 
and as such was obeyed by Abraham and after- 
wards incorporated by Moses in the Levitical 
Code. 

2. Repeal by implication is not favored, and 
is never allowed unless the repugnance between 
the new provision and the old is plain, and the 
two provisions are wrreconcilable. 

This conservative rule is based upon the pre- 
sumption that when the legislative will has 
been expressed it continues unchanged, and if 
a change is intended, it will be clearly signi- 
fied. ‘Thus, in a reported case, an act was 


18 Wuatr WE Own. 


passed exempting from taxation the property 
of a railroad until completed, and another act 
was passed several years later, before the rail- 
road was completed, requiring all property of 
railroads to be taxed. It was held that the 
second act did not repeal the first; that the 
two acts were not irreconcilable, but-that this 
railroad’s property was exempt from taxation 
until it was completed, and taxable afterwards. 

Under this rule it is not necessary that the 
tithe should be commanded in the New Testa- 
ment, for it remains in force under the Old 
Testament, unless there is some provision in 
the New plainly repugnant to it. Let us then 
examine the New Testament, applying this 
rule, and see if there is anything in it irrecon- 
cilable with the continuance of the tithe. 

The tithe is named but three times in the 
New Testament. Our Lord, in speaking of it. 
said: “But woe unio you Pharisees! for ye 
tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, 
and pass over judgment and the love of God: 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave 
the other undone.”’—(Luke xi. 42.) 

The same saying is recorded by Matthew 
(Matt. xxiii. 23). In the epistle to the He- 


WHat WE Owr. 19 


brews Paul says, “And here men that die re- 
ceive tithes; but there he receiveth them of 
whom it is witnessed that he liveth.”—(Heb. 
vil. 8.) 

There is certainly nothing in these passages 
to show an intention to abolish the tithe; on 
the contrary, they recognize it as in force, es- 
pecially the passage from Hebrews, written to 
Christians many years after the new dispen- 
sation. For the matter is argued at length, 
and Melchizedek, in receiving tithes from Ab- 


_Traham, is shown to be a type of Christ, or, as 


some think, Christ himself (see Hebrews, 
chapter VII.). There are several other pas- 
sages which seem to refer to the tithe. 

Our Lord, when he sent out his disciples to 
preach, said to them: 

“Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass 
in your purses . . . for the workman is 
worthy of his meat.”—( Matt. x. 9, 10.) 

Or, as Luke puts it: 

“For the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go 
not from house to house.”—(Luke x. 7.) 

And in discussing the matter of ministe- 
rial support, Paul first shows that ministers 
of the gospel should not be expected to sup- 


20 WHat WE Owe. 


port themselves, and quotes from the Mosaic 
law to sustain this position. He then refers 
to the priests under that law being supported 
by the tithes, and adds that the Lord has or- 
dained that his ministers are to be thus sup- 
ported. He says: 

“Who goeth a warfare any time at his own 
charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth 
not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock 
and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say 
I these things as a man or saith not the law 
the same also? For it is written in the law of 
Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the 
ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God care 
for oxen? or saith he it altogether for our 
sakes? . . . . If we have sown unto you 
spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall 
reap your carnal things? . . . . Do ye not 
know that they which minister about holy 
things live of the things of the temple, and 
they which wait at the altar are partakers with 
the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained 
that they which preach the gospel should live 
of the gospel.”—(1 Cor. ix. 7-14.) 

Mark, these are not the words of Peter, or 
some judaizing teacher, but of the great Apos- 





Wuat WE Owe. 21 


tle to the Gentiles to the church in a Gentile 
city. He must refer to the tithe because they 
who ministered about holy things were sup- 
ported under the law from the tithe, and it 
would be impossible that they who preach the 
gospel should even so live of the gospel if the 
tithe was abolished. In the original Greek the 
word translated even so means literally in the 
same way. The priests under the law had a 
certain support, the tithes, and in addition to 
this an uncertain income from the free will 
offerings dependent on the people’s pleasure. 
As this law had passed away, our Lord or- 


_ dained that his priests or ministers should not 


go from house to house, or be dependent on 
mere gifts, but should have certain support 
from the tithe in the same way as the priests 
under the law, and that in addition to this 
every man should make such free will offerings 
as he pleased for the support of the gospel. 

A little further on, in the same epistle, the 


| apostle says: 


“Upon the first day of the week let every one 
of you lay by him in store as God hath pros- 
pered him, that there be no gatherings when | 
I come.”—(1 cor. xvi. 2.) 


22 Wuat WE Owe. 


To tithe is to lay by in store as God hath 
prospered us, and as he alludes to no change 
in the amount or proportion to be laid by, it is 
reasonable he contemplated that they should 
at least lay by no less than the customary por- 
tion of a tenth, for he and many to whom he 
wrote had been accustomed all their lives to 
tithe, and if a change was intended, in dis- 
cussing the matter just before he would have 
said so. He evidently did not mean to hmit 
them to a tenth, but when he had just enjoined 
on them, ““Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God” (1 Cor. x. 31), it could not occur to 
him that they would fall short of the absolute 
requirements of the sacred law. 

Under the Old Testament the people gave to 
the Lord, not only the tithe, but in addition to 
this the free will offering. (Deut. xvi. 10.) 
The free will offering was by the early Chris- 
tians.carried to great length. Their idea was 
not a tenth only for Christ, but ali for him; 
they sold their possessions and had all things 
in common rejoicing in the grace of God 
which had made them free in Christ Jesus. 
(Acts iv. 34, 35.) This expansion of the free 
will offering did not abolish the tithe; it was 


oe 


Wuat We Owe. 23 


only an enlargement of it, by reason of the 
earnest devotion of the early church. But in 
consequence of this the tithe has of late been 
lost sight of, and everything given to the Lord 
is regarded as a free will offering, although 
the tithe which is the Lord’s is far from paid. 
The Christian is not limited to the tithe; he 
may give as much as he may feel able by way 
of free will offerimg, but under no cireum- 
stances can he afford to give less than the 
tenth. 

If there is a legal presumption that the will 
of a human legislature remains unchanged, 
how much stronger is the argument for the 
word of him who is from everlasting to ever- 
lasting, and who changes not. ‘There is but 
one church of the living God, the same before 
Christ as now. Abel and Abraham were saved 
by the same Saviour that we trust in. The 
stream of God’s grace widens as it flows down 
from Eden, but it has never changed its course, 
and there is no uncertainty in its flow. The 
Old Testament is not one revelation and the 
New Testament another, but the two together 
are the word of God. One supplements, com- 
pletes the other. There is no change of pur- 


24. WHat WE OweE. 


pose from the promise in Eden, that the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head 
(Genesis iii. 17), to the final invitation of 
Revelation, “And whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely” (Rev. xxii. 17). All 
the Old Testament, with its types and sacri- 
fices, points to the Lamb of God that should re- 
store man to his high estate lost by the fall, 
and the New Testament simply reveals the 
highway of salvation which Isaiah foresaw. 
(Isaiah xxxv. 8.) A distinction must be made 
between the Levitical or Ceremonial law and 
the moral law that underlay it. The one has 
been fulfilled and has passed away, but the 
other governing man’s duty to his Creator is 
unchanged ; and to guard against the tendency 
so natural among Christians to magnify the 
New Testament above the Old or to regard the 
requirements of the Old Testament as no lon- 
ger in force, our Saviour said: 

“Think not that I am come to destroy the 
law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy 
but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle 
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled. Whoso therefore shall break one of 


Wuat WE Owe. 25 


these least commandments, and shall teach men 
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom 
of heaven: but whosoever shal] do and teach 
them, the same shall be called great in the 


kingdom of heaven.”—(Matt. v. 17-19.) 


There was no need to enjoin the tithe on the 
early Christians, for, like the Sabbath, it was 
well understood, and it was only on the new or 
disputed points that the apostles wrote. There 
is very little in the New Testament about the 
Sabbath, and it cannot be sustained as a Chris- 


tian institution without the Old Testament, 


for there is in the New Testament no com-« 
mandment forbidding secular labor on Sun- 
day, or directing how the day is to be observed. 
All this is from the Old Testament. The 
tithe and the Sabbath go hand in hand to- 
gether; one-tenth of the increase and one day 
in seven are the Lord’s. The New Testament 
authority for the tithe is stronger than that 
for the Sabbath; and the arguments by which 
the Sabbath is sustained apply with equal force 
to the tithe. That the early church practiced 


_ the tithe cannot be doubted. 


plas t 


“The Apostolic Canons, the Apostolical 
Constitution, St. Cyprian on the Unity of the 


26 Wuat WE Owe. 


Church, and the works of St. Ambrose, St. 
Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and the other 
fathers of both divisions of the church abound 
with allusions to it.’—(Chamber’s Encyclo- 
pedia, title, “Tithe.”’) 

“Tt is generally agreed by learned men that 
the ancients accounted tithes to be due by di- 
vine right. Bellarmin, indeed, and Rivet; and 
Mr. Selden, place them upon another foot ; but 
our learned Bishop Andrews and Bishop Car- 
leton, who wrote before Mr. Selden, and 
Bishop Mantague and Tillesly, who wrote in 
answer to him (not to mention many others 
who have written since), have clearly proved 
that the ancients believed the law about tithes 
not to be merely a ceremonial or political com- 
mand, but of moral and perpetual obligation.” 
—(Bingham. ) 

“So liberal, in the beginning of Christian- 
ity, was the devotion of the believers that their 
bounty to the evangelical priesthood far ex- 
ceeded what the tenth could have been.”— 
(Selden. ) 

“This is the unanimous judgment of the 
fathers, and the voice of the church uncon- 


tradicted for more than a thousand years.”— 
(Dr. Miller. ) 





pS = é 


Wuat Wr Owe7. 27 


Tnnumerable quotations might be made 
from the early fathers, but only a few can be 
given. 

“That instead of thou shalt not commit 
adultery, Christ says, Thou shalt not lust after 
any; instead of thou shalt not kill, thou shalt 
not be angry; instead of thou shalt pay tithes, 
sell all and give to the poor, which are not 
dissolving of the law, but enlarging it.”— 
(Irenzeus. ) 

“The number ten is venerable also in the 
New Testament . . . and because one 
Christ is the author, fountain, and original of 


_all, therefore the people offer tithes to the min- 


isters and priests. . . . And that we may be 
further taught by God’s own words that these 
things are to be observed according to the let- 
ter, let us further note, the Lord saith in the 
gospel, Woe to you Scribes, Pharisees, hypo- 
crites, who give tithes of mint, anise and cin- 
namon, but omit the greater things of the law; 
ye hypocrites, these things ye ought to have 
done, and not to have left the other undone. 
Mind well how the word of the Lord would, 
by all means, have the greater things of the 
law done, but so as these things which are in- 


28 Wuat WE Owe. 


tended to stand according to the letter, be not 
omitted.”— ( Origen.) 

“God has reserved the tenth part to himself, 
and therefore it is not lawful for a man to- 
retain what God has reserved for himself. To 
thee he has given nine parts, for himself he 
has reserved a tenth part.”— (Ambrose. ) 

“OQ, what a shame is this! that what was no 
great matter among the Jews, should be pre- 
tended to be so among Christians; if it was a 
dangerous thing to fail of giving tithes then, 
to be sure it is more dangerous now.”—(Chrys- 
ostom. ) 

“Tn harvest, we ought to think of giving, or 
rather restoring tithes to God, that gives all we 
have, with thanksgiving, for the Giver of all 
is pleased to require back a tenth from us, not 
for his profit, but ours; for thus he promiseth 
by his prophet, Malachi—Tithes are required 
as a debt, and he that will not give them, in- 
vades another’s right.”— (Augustine. ) 

“Christians are not only bound to give tithes 
and first-fruits, but to sell all; and if they will 
not do that, at least they ought to follow the 
beginnings of the Jews, to give the poor their 
share, and to the priests and Levites the honor 


tag 





PITRE Ry 


Wat WE Owe. 29 


due to them; he that doth not this, manifestly 
deceives and cheats God.”—(Jerome. ) 

To sum up, we have a presumption, in the 
absence of evidence to the contrary, that the 
tithe continues under the new dispensation ; 


_ as the worship of God with his substance is a 


duty of man no less now than before, and the 
burden is on those who maintain that it has 
been abolished to show it. Our Saviour did 
not abolish it, but said it should not be left un- 
done, and the Apostle Paul recognized it as 
in force. The ancient church who, if it was 
abolished, certainly must have known it, prac- 
ticed it and set apart a tenth of their increase 
to the Lord just as they set apart a seventh of 
their time, believing that there was the same 
necessity for system and regularity in worship- 
ping God with their substance as at the stated 
services in person; and the early fathers all 
enjoined it, not as subject of doubt or argu- 
ment, but as a matter of course. 

3. The whole statute must be read together, 
and the real intention of the law-giver must 
preval. 

Under this rule the law is not to be deter- 
mined from isolated sections of a collection, 


80 WHAT WE Owe. 


but from the whole, construing one section 
with another, so as, if possible, to reconcile 
them together, and arrive at the real meaning 
of the law-maker. It is unfortunate that this 
rule has not been oftener applied in constru- 
ing the Bible; for if the meaning of the Bible 
had been determined always, not from isolated 
verses, but from a careful consideration of the 
whole, and of the purpose in view, many of the 
quarrels that have rent the church would never 
have occurred. 

Conceding the Bible to be a unit, composed 
of parts aptly fitted together, and each an in- 
tegral part of the whole; and conceding that 
the relation of God’s people to him in all ages 
has been the same, and that the church under 
the New Testament exists by the same faith 
that Abel died for, and by which Enoch walked 
with God (Heb. chap. XI.), we come to the 
question: Was it the intention of the law-giver 
that the tithe should cease with the old dis- 
pensation? ‘There can be no question that the 
tithe was in force till the coming of Christ. If 
it ceased then, why? What reason was there 
for the tithe before that does not exist since? 

We are taught that to whom much is given, 





Wuat WE Owe. oh 


of him much will be required (Luke xii. 48). 
If Abraham, in the dim twilight of the gospel 
dawn, gave a tenth to the Lord, shall they for 
whom the Lord died, and who live in the full 
glory of Christian revelation, do less? Cer- 


_ tainly if the poor Israelite, ignorant, oppressed 


by his conquerors, and having but a glimmer- 
ing of the light, for centuries paid the Lord a 
tithe of all, we cannot properly pay less who 
are more blessed than the prophets, who de- 
sired: to see the things we see and have not 
seen them. When Christ arose from the dead 
and manifested to his sorrowing disciples his 
glorious Messiahship, and the kingdom of God 
came with great power at Pentecost, is it pos- 
sible that any of those converts who had given 
the tithe to the Lord all their lives could ever 
have thought of giving less when enjoying the 
full fruition of God’s ancient promises to his 
people? Under the old dispensation there was 
no mission work for the church; there was no 
command to strive for the conversion of the 
Gentiles, and the tenth was used exclusively 
for the support of the temple. When Christ 
commissioned the church to “preach the gos- 
pel to all nations,” a new work, requiring a 
great outlay, was intrusted to it. 


ae Wuart We Owe. 


“Whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall they 
call on him in whom they have not believed ? 
And how shall they believe in him of whom 
they have not heard? And how shall they 
hear without a preacher? And how shall they 
preach, except they be sent?”’—(Rom. x. 
13-15.) 

Considering the magnitude of the under- 
taking, the weakness of the church, and the 
importance of the work, can we conceive that 
Christ intended his followers to be less liberal 
than the Jews had been? The old dispensa- 
tion was but the preparation for the new. The 
carrying of the gospel to the Gentiles is the 
great end or consummation of all Scripture. 
Even if we admit the object of the tithe was 
the support of the priesthood, can it be claimed 
that the type was of more importance in God’s 
sight than the thing typified, or that God’s 
people were expected to love him more, or 
bring him larger offering in the preparation, 
than in the final consummation of the gospel 
plan—the conversion of the world to Jesus 
Christ ! 

Take the map of the world, look at the vast 


—— 





Wuat WE Owe. 33 


extent of heathendom, and see at the end of 
nearly nineteen centuries how much of the 
great work of carrying the gospel to all na- 
tions is yet unaccomplished. Look into the 
home field and see how many churches are va- 
cant, how little the poor have the gospel 
preached unto them,:and what great numbers 
in our own land never hear the word of God. 
’ Read any religious paper, or attend any church 
court, and hear the universal destitution. Our 
rapidly-growing cities teem with poor who are 
strangers to our churches.  Irreligion has 
grown there until it is now seeking to lay its 
hand on the Christian Sabbath. In the South 
and West towns and cities are springing up 
everywhere, the population often increasing 
so rapidly as to sound like a romance. 'The 
continent will soon be redeemed from the wil- 
derness and be thickly populated. To all these 
people the gospel must be preached, and in 
heathen lands doors are opening everywhere 
for the missionaries. The opportunities of 
Christianity are practically unlimited. The 
ery, “Come over into Macedonia and help us,” 
is resounding in a countless chorus, and every 
day appear new fields white unto harvest. 


34 Wuat WE Owe. 


Christianity in this life breaks the shackles 
of barbarism, emancipates woman, sanctifies 
marriage, builds homes, cares for the poor, 
inakes asylums for the unfortunate, and causes 
peace on earth and good will to men. It brings 
eternal happiness after “life’s fitful fever,” 
and is the only means whereby men can be 
saved. God deemed it of such importance to 
the world that the Son of God became man, 
lived a life of humiliation, and died on the 
cross to bring it to us. God’s dealings with 
the world, from creation until Christ, all point 
to 1t as their culmination. 

When we consider these things can any one 
believe that Christians should bring to God a 
less offering than his servants were required 
to bring to him under the old dispensation ? 
The question is not to be decided by this verse 
of Scripture or that, or from the silence of the 
New Testament at one point or another, or 
from any particular circumstance or saying of 
any of the Bible authors, but from the general 
purpose and plain intention of our heavenly 
Father as revealed in the whole Bible. When 
all other means of grace are infinitely in- 
creased, when a new and great responsibility 





Wuat WE Owe. 30 


has been imposed, and when commensurate 
diligence and activity is enjoined so often in 
the New Testament, is it credible it was in- 
tended that in beneficence alone there should 
be a falling off, or that less should be paid than 
before! 

The object of the tithe, under both dispen- 
sations, is the same—that we should worship 
God with our substance. God could in all 
times take care of his church without help 
from us if he so willed. The tithe is not for 
his benefit, but for ours. He would have us 
feel that we are his stewards (1 Peter iv. 10), 
that all we have comes from him; not that 
this is “great Babylon which I have builded by 
the might of my power.” (Dan. iv. 30.) It 
applies to the clergy as well as the laity, and 
is an act of worship, a recognition of God in 
our every-day life. The more regularly it is 
done, the more do we think of God and his 
goodness to us, and the more we feel our de- 
pendence upon him. Like the daily prayers 
and the regular services of the sanctuary, it 
keeps our hearts from straying from God, and 
prevents our losing sight of him in the turmoil 
of every-day life. But for the tithe and the 


36 Wuat WE OweE. 


daily offerings the Jewish nation would have 
forgotten God long before Judea became a 
Roman province; and if the church were inde- 
pendent of us so as to receive no offerings from 
us, it would be the greatest misfortune that 
could befall us. . 

It must be borne in mind that a legal tithe 
is not advocated. During the middle ages 
laws were enacted requiring the payment of 
the tithe; and the older English reports are 
full of cases decided in the courts for the re- 
covery of the tithes. This degraded the tithe 
from an act of worship to a mere legal duty. 
We are not under the law, but under grace; 
the tithe we owe the Master is his, not ours; 
but its payment is an act of love on our part, 
a privilege rich in blessings. The tithe is sim- 
ply a measure he has given us in his word to 
let us know what our duty is, that we may 
know the minimum of what we ought to do. 
If in recognition of special blessings of God 
we would give something to him, we can make 
such free-will offerings as we please in addi- 
tion to the tithe. The law is no longer a school- 
master to compel us to tithe, but the duty re- 
mains and is made more sacred, being now 


WHat WE OWE. ~ 37 


like all other Christian duties, a matter not of 
law but of love. 

“Tf ye keep my commandments, ye shall 
abide in my love; even as I have kept my 
Father’s commandments and abide in his 
love. (John xv. 10.) I and my Father are 
one. (John x. 30.) No man hath seen God 
at any time. The only begotten son, which is 
in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared 
him.”—(John i. 18.) 

The commandments of the Old Testament 
being therefore no less the commandments of 
Christ than those of the New, certainly we 
who are made free by the grace of God, and 
become his sons and daughters, should not 
bring him less worship, love or offerings than 
the children of the bond-woman. 

“For it is written that Abraham had two 
sons; the one by a bond maid, the other by a 
free woman. But he who was of the bond 
woman was born after the flesh; but he of 
the free woman was by promise. Which things 
are an allegory, for these are the two cove- 
nants. (Gal. iv. 22, 24.) The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are 


the children of: God. And if children then 


38 : Wuat WE Owe. 


heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with 
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that 
we may be also glorified together.”—(Rom. 
viii. 16, 17.) 


Under each of the three above rules it is 
submitted that the case of the tithe is made 
out, and that a clearer case is hard to find in 
the courts. If a civil case falls within any of 
these rules it is sustained. If, in a matter of 
money between one man and another, one of 
these rules would be sufficient, shall not all 
three suffice in a matter between us and our 
Maker? If the matter is doubtful in deciding 
our own case, shall we not solve the doubt in 
his favor? 

When we see how insufficient the means of 
the church are for the work to be accom- 
plished, and how the gospel cause has been 
crippled and retarded by the neglect of God’s 
people to pay what the poor Jews regularly 
paid, all must admit that the prophet Malachi, 
as down the vista of the centuries he saw in 
vision the Messenger of the Covenant, foretold 
accurately one feature, at least, of the new 
dispensation. His words are: . 


WHat WE Owe. 39 


“Behold I will send my messenger and he 
shall prepare the way before me; and the Lorp 
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his tem- 
ple, even the messenger of the covenant whom 
ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the 
Lorp of hosts. But who may abide the day of 
his coming? and who shall stand when he ap- 
peareth ? for he is like a refiner’s fire and like 
fuller’s soap. . . . Return unto me and I 
will return unto you saith the Lorp of hosts. 
But ye said, wherein shall we return? Willa 
man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But 
ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In 
tithes and offerings.” — (Mal. ii1. 1, 2, 7, 8.) 

The General Assembly (South), some years 
ago, sent to the presbyteries the question of 
the tithe, and at once the fear of ecclesiastical 
usurpation showed itself in the ensuing dis- 
cussions. The presbyteries differed widely, 
and many of them seemed to think it a subject 
on which the church should make no deliver- 
ance, for fear it might in time grow again 
into the legal tithe of the middle ages. Upon 
the return of the matter to the General As- 
sembly, ona motion to table or drop the mat- 
ter, there was a tie vote, and the Moderator. 
then voting in the affirmative, the motion was 


40 Wuat WE OwE. 


carried. But the next General Assembly 
adopted the following resolution offered by its 
Committee on Systematic Benevolence: 

“That the principle of the tithe is recom- 
mended as suggestive and useful in all mat- 
ters of Christian giving, and that proportion- 
ate giving is binding on the consciences of 
God’s people.”—(Minutes General Assembly, 
1891, page 260.) 

This resolution perhaps goes as far as the 
church should go, and correctly states the view 
entertained by the great mass of Presbyteri- 
ans. ‘To go further would be to make the pay- 
ment of the tithe a matter of Church regula- 
tion, not -an act of worship freely offered by 
the creature to the Creator. The tithe is only 
the measure he has given us that we may know 
our duty. Its payment is purely a voluntary 
matter with every Christian, and there is to be 
no constraint about it. 

“But this, I say, He which soweth sparingly 
shall reap also sparingly; and he which sow- 
eth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 
Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of 
necessity : for God loveth a cheerful giver.”— 
(2 Corinthians ix. 6, 7.) 


Wuat WE Owe. 41 


It is objected to the tithe that it is too 
much, that the needs of many are so great 
that they cannot spare the money. 

A complete answer to this is, that God says 
otherwise. His people in the olden time 
spared it, and business is certainly as profitable 
now as then. All that tends to make life en- 
joyable has multiplied; the marts of com- 
merce teem with activity, and the whole land 
smiles with peace and plenty. Many Chris- 
tians forget that God commands us to wor- 
ship him no less with our substance than our 
tongues, not realizing that the worship of God 
with our substance should be in the same 
spirit and with the same regularity and system 
as other divine worship. Regarding religious 
contributions as a mere gratuity, they con- 
clude that they must be just before they are 
generous, and must, therefore, pay first their 
debts, or provide for themselves or their fam- 
ilies before they give anything to the Lord. 
There cannot be a more unbiblical notion than 
this. Our Master and his worship are to come 
before ourselves and all claims we may create. 
His is the first claim on our talents, our per- 
sons or our time, and no less on our substance. . 


42 Wuat WE Owe. 


He does not claim all our time, but one-sey- 
enth; and he requires us to use our persons 
and our talents for his glory. If we do not 
devote them to preaching the gospel, but to 
making money in some pursuit to which we 
are adapted, his claim upon our increase for 
the portion that is his is still the first. This 
is so everywhere recognized in his word. If 
we may postpone him for the debts we create 
ourselves, or for the wants we indulge in. 
then we may by our own acts curtail his wor- 
ship; and he who is commanded to be first in 
all our thoughts will be last in receiving his 
due. In the Bible we are told that he is our 
king, yet no king or government allows its 
subjects to pay their taxes or public dues after 
meeting all their other debts or the wants of 
their families. We also read there that the 
-earth is his, and the fullness thereof, and 
that we are only his stewards, yet what land- 
lord or master allows his tenants or stewards 
to postpone him to all others, or pay him out 
of what is left from the demands of want. 
self-indulgence or covetousness? If a man 
cannot make ends meet and pay the tithe, he 
should trim the ends, not curtail the tithe. 


Wuat WE OweE. 43 


He has no more right to use the tithe to pay 
for house rent or provisions than to use for 
this purpose the money of another intrusted 
to his keeping. If the nine-tenths will not 
meet his wants, then his wants are simply in 
excess of his income, and should be reduced. 
In every such case it will be found that the 
ten-tenths do not suffice, but that the income 
is constantly exceeded, and that if he will try 
it, the person will get along just as well on the 
nine-tenths as he does on the ten. However 
small the income may be, however great may 
be the wants to be supplied, the tithe is the 
Lord’s. If the income is small, the tithe will 
be proportionately small, but bury not the 
Lord’s talent in a napkin, and make him no 
return. In our Saviour’s parable the ser- 
vant who received only one talent made no 
gain, while those who received more were 
faithful; and thus we are taught that God 
requires a return from us, however little may 
be given us, and that those who receive least 
are peculiarly subject to the temptation to 
fall short of duty. (Matt. xxv. 18.) If the 
income is larger, lay by the tenth, not grudg- 
ingly, but with gratitude to God for his good- 


44 WHat WE OweE. 


ness. Everything is income that we gain, 
whether as wages for our labor, or rent for 
our property, or a gift from a friend, or even 
from charity. A tenth of all is the Lord’s. 
No beggar is too poor to tithe. And so of our 
debts; we have no right to take the Lord’s 
tenth to meet our obligations, because our 
debt to him is the most sacred debt we owe, 
and just as pressing as any other. Our cred- 
itors usually have other means of support, but 
the church has no resources but the contribu- 
tions of its people. Such is the Old Testa- 
ment rule, and such was the Jewish practice 
for centuries. No believer then found his 
debts too great, or his family too expensive, or 
his income too small to pay the Lord a tithe 
of all. 

Another and more satisfactory answer to 
this objection is that no one loses by laying 
aside the tenth, but, on the contrary, makes 
by it. 

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 
that there may be meat in mine house and 
prove me now herewith, saith the Lorp of 
Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of 
heaven and pour you out a blessing that there 


Wuat WE Owe. 45 


shall not be room enough to receive it. (Mal. 
iii. 10.) Honor the Lorp with thy substance 
and with the first fruits of all thine increase. 
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and 
thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”— 
(Prov. iii. 9, 10.) 

Observe that these are not the words of the 
Levitical law, but of the prophets foretelling 
the new dispensation, and who spoke not for 
their time alone, but to God’s people in all 
time. For there is not in the Bible a clearer 
prophetic vision of the Christian era than is 
contained in the first three chapters of Pro- 
verbs and this third chapter of Malachi. 

These promises of God are as fully made to 
us as to the Jews when they were written, and 
if any such proposition can be established by 
human testimony, God fulfills these promises 
to those who keep his commandments. It is 
not meant that all who tithe prosper in busi- 
ness or get rich, for prosperity depends often 
on many contingencies; but that the obser- 
vance of the tithe, like the observance of the 
Sabbath, is attended with God’s special bless- 
ing, and that those who tithe not only lose 
nothing by it, but get along better on the nine- 


46 Wuat WE OWE. 


tenths than they would on the whole. A gen- 
tleman in Chicago, who began tithing many 
years ago, and has taken considerable interest 
in the subject, says in a pamphlet published 
by him: 

“During the last sixteen years circulars have 
been sent to at least three-fourths of all the 
evangelical ministers in the United States, in 
all of which were the following statement and 
question: ‘My belief is, that God blesses in 
temporal, as well as in spiritual things, the 
man who honors him by setting apart a stated 
portion of his income to his service. I have 
never known an exception. Have you?’ The 
same question has been asked of many of these 
ministers two, and even three times. Several 
little pamphlets similar to this, and on the 
same subject, have been carefully distributed 
by these ministers among more than 5,000,000 
laymen, and in every one of these pamphlets 
the same statement was made, and the same 
question was asked. I now ask the same ques- 
tion of you. Do you know of any exceptions ? 
If you do, will you not write the cireumstances 
to the address on the last page of this pam- 
phlet, or relate them to your minister and ask 


a ee 


OEE ee eee eee 


Wuat WE Owe. 47 


him to write. Have many replied as to these 
facts? Yes; many hundreds, perhaps thou- 
sands, and with a remarkable unanimity of 
experience. Perhaps two dozen cases have 
been given where parties who practiced this 
rule had met with business reverses, but in 
several instances later information showed 
that they were recovering, and bid fair to be 
even better situated than before.” 

Several years since some gentlemen in the 
Second Presbyterian Church of Henderson, 
Ky., resolved to tithe, and after two years’ 
trial they concluded they could not afford (pe- 
ceuniarily) not to tithe. A member of a neigh- 
boring church some years after this began 
tithing, and thereafter became financially em- 
barrassed. His debts were pressing, his busi- 
ness depressed. It looked as if he could not 
spare a cent, but he was convinced the tithe 
was right, and determined he would keep it 
up. Daily the tenth was laid aside. All the 


church demands were paid promptly out of 


it, and, like the widow’s cruse of oil, it failed 
not. Soon the fund swelled so that it was 
transferred to the bank. The debts melted 


away lke a morning fog, the tithe was not 


48 Wuat WE Owe. 


missed, and the bread cast upon the waters re- 
turned a hundred fold. A number of such 
instances might be given. If you are incredu- 
Yous of this, as Philip said to Nathanael, 
“Come [try it] and see.” The trial can do 
you no harm. It will, at least, bring system 
into your finances. You will know what you 
make, and what you are spending, and this 
will bring about a close scrutiny of the ex- 
pense account, which will save much more than 
the tenth laid by. The great reason why most 
people do not tithe is they do not think they 
can afford it, but no one who has tried it ever 
quit it for this reason. Try it and see if you 
do not find that your past contributions have 
fallen far short of the divine rule, and that 
your experience with the nine-tenths will be 
the same as thousands of others who testify to 
God’s literally keeping his promises to bless 
those who thus serve him. 

Another common objection is, “I don’t see 
how I can tell what my tithe is.” This ob- 
jection, though honestly made, is really due 
to the same cause as the last—the unwilling- 
ness to part with so much. This is readily 
proved by a single illustration. Suppose the 


Wuat WE Owen. 49 


promise of God was that the church should 
pay us an amount equal to the tenth of our 
income upon our informing it what our in- 
come was, would any of us be unable to get up 
the information ? 

The tithe is to be paid on just the basis sup- 
posed. Of everything we add to our resources, 
the tenth is the Lord’s. Nothing is to be de- 
ducted from the net income. We are to live 
on the nine-tenths, and meet our obligations 
out of it. Of course, the capital is not to be 
tithed, nor is the gross income, only the net 
income after deducting the expenses incurred 
in earning it. In deciding what should be 
tithed a great many difficult questions will 
arise, but none that this criterion will not 
solve. Thus, house rent, or provisions for the 
family, are not to be deducted from the in- 
come before tithing, because these are our liv- 
ing, and we cannot prefer ourselves to the 
Lord; but rent for the store or office, or ex- 
penses in carrying on the store, or taxes on the 
business, are to be deducted, for the income 
from the business is what is left after paying 
these. In the same way expenses paid in run- 
ning a farm must be paid out of the produce, 


50 Waar WE Owe. 


for only the balance is the income; and rent 
for the farm should be deducted if the farm is 
rented, but no deduction can be made for the 
rent if the party owns the property, for this is 
his capital. 

The tithe is not all to be paid to the church. 
much less to the home church. The tithe is 
also for the poor; what is given to the poor is 
lent to the Lord. (Prov. xix. 17.) We are to 
disburse the tithe in the fear of the Lord and 
for the good of his kingdom. Whatever is 
given to any charity may be paid out of the 
tithe, but there is no charity in giving to them 
of one’s own household. Nothing should be 
paid out of the tithe to a relation where the re- 
lationship is the reason of the gift. 

In the early church deacons were elected to 
distribute the funds of the church among the 
poor, and care was taken that there were none 
among them that lacked. (Acts iii. 34; vi. 
1-7.) We still preserve the office and name of 
deacons, but their duties are chiefly confined 
to taking up collections, which by great ex- 
horting barely pay the pastor and the sexton, 
or not unfrequently leave both in part unpaid. 
If the people all still laid aside the tithe on 


Saye 


WHat WE Owe. 51 


the first day of the week as God has prospered 
them, the poor would not suffer, the orphans 
would not want shelter or education, and the 
name of religion would not be scandalized by 
festivals, raffles, and many other such means of 
raising money now in vogue. The perpetual 
begging of money would cease, and the cause 
would not be hindered by the disobedience of 
the Master’s command, “Go not from house to 
house.” Who can tell how many souls are 
kept out of the kingdom by the continual beg- 
ging that is done in the name of religion from 


_ house to house! Christ did not intend that his 


church should be a beggar. 

One of the great benefits derived from sys- 
tematic tithing is that it takes away all sordid- 
ness from religious benevolence. When a call 
is made upon us there is no feeling of unwil- 
lingness to part with the money, no plea to 
ourselves that the amount cannot be spared, 
and no doubt in our own minds whether the 
reluctance to give is founded in prudence or 
covetousness; the only question is, “Is it 
proper to spend the Lord’s money for this?” 
or if the object is worthy, “How much can be 
spared to it without prejudice to others?” 
The tithe removes Christian benevolence from 


52 Wuat Wer OwE. 


the domain of hap-hazard and temporary im- 
pulse and puts it upon an intelligent syste- 
matic basis. Being stewards of God and left 
wholly to keep the account ourselves, we should 
not leave the matter to the impulse of the 
moment, or so manage our stewardship as to 
have no accurate idea how we stand. No other 
stewardship is managed in this way, and our 
divine Master forbids it in his stewards. The 
work of maintaining the gospel and carrying 
it to all the world rests primarily upon each 
individual Christian. So far as any Christian 
fails to do his duty, in so far is the work un- 
done. He who brings to the Lord less than a 
tithe curtails to this extent the Lord’s work; 
and he who diligently earns money in business 
and systematically sustains the work with the 
tenth of the increase as truly preaches the 
gospel as the foreign missionary. 

A very good way to tithe is to lay by the 
tenth daily from every sum collected after de- 
ducting the expense of earning it. This can 
be done without trouble by professional men, 
or parties working for wages, or living on an 
income. Merchants will have more trouble, 
but their books will enable them to learn what 
the profit on their business is. The tithe 


WHat WE Owe. 53 


should be kept separate in a purse to itself, 
and an account kept of what is paid out of it. 
If this is practiced systematically for a, short 
time, it will give such satisfaction of con- 
science that it will never be abandoned. 

The writer has practiced the tithe for years 
and knows by experience the truth of these 
things. Conceiving that perhaps the argu- 
ment from a mere legal standpoint, coming 
from a lawyer who is disinterested and in no 
wise biased professionally in favor of the 
tithe, may induce some who have never tithed 
to try it, he prints the above in the conviction 
that if Christians would try tithing systemati- 
cally for a time it would soon be generally 
practiced. 

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 
that there may be meat in mine house, and 
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of 
Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of 
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there 
shall not be room enough to receive tt.” 

“Give, and tt shall be given unto you; good 
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, 

and running over, shall men give into your 
bosom. For with the same measure that ye 
mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” 





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